Kiah Melverton | Australian Olympic Committee

Kiah's Story

Fast Facts

Sport: Swimming
Event: 1500m freestyle
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
Year Born: 1996
State Born: QLD

About Kiah

The upside of the Tokyo Olympics being held in 2021 means that it was only a three-year wait for the Paris Olympics to come around, and for Kiah Melverton, that’s something she really appreciates.

Kiah made her Olympic debut in Tokyo and while she made the finals of both the 800m and 1500m freestyle, she wasn’t particularly happy with her sixth placing in the two events. Paris can’t come soon enough as far as the 26-year-old Queenslander is concerned.

One of the lessons she took away from Japan was that winning at the Olympics requires not just incredible talent and a huge work ethic but also a dollop of luck. So many athletes give their all in training but it still takes a little good fortune to be ready to peak on the day of the event.

She began her Tokyo campaign with the 1500m freestyle and, as she and her coach Dean Boxall has discussed, she was prepared when the heats times proved to be fast because they were swum at night. While her time in the prelims, 15min.58.96sec, was marginally slower than what she had swum at trials, 15.57.14, it still was good enough to get her into the final. That race did not work out as she had hoped as she finished in 16.00.36.

Her main hopes were fixed on the 800m, however, and everything was looking on track when she placed third in her heat in 8min.20.45sec, just behind Russia’s Anastasiia Kiprichnikova and team-mate Ariarne Titmus and just a second and a half off what she had done at trials, which had been a major pb (personal best time) for her. But in an outside lane, she was unable to stay in the race for bronze – which was a realistic goal considering American legend Katie Ledecky and Titmus were once again battling for gold – and she came home in 8.22.25.

“I knew if I’d been on my best, I would have been in that third or fourth position and if it came down to a race, I probably could have got my hand on the wall,” she later told the media. “But the first thing I said to my coach when I got out of the pool was, just wait for the day when I get closer to the middle of the pool.”

All of which explains why she has her sights fixed firmly on Paris.

After making her Dolphins debut at the 2016 world short course championship, where she took home bronze in the 800m freestyle, Kiah turned her attention to open water swimming, finishing seventh in the women’s event. Returning to the pool, she grabbed the 800m bronze at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Four months later, at the Tokyo Pan Pacs, she won the silver in the 1500m while placing sixth and fourth in the 400m and 800m freestyle respectively.

It was at the 2019 world titles in Gwangju, South Korea, that she broke through for her first senior international gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Kiah turned in an impressive world championships in Budapest in 2022, placing second to Ledecky in the 800m and then swimming a powerful 1.55.91 third leg to help the Australian 4x200m freestyle to gold in the final.

Then it was on to Birmingham for a silver in the 800m freestyle, just three second behind Commonwealth record breaker Titmus, and a bronze in the 400m freestyle. And for good measure, she won the silver in the 400m individual medley behind rising Canadian champion Summer McIntosh.

But the undoubted highlight of the meet – and indeed Kiah’s swimming career – was when she joined with Madison Wilson, Mollie O’Callaghan and Titmus to break the world record for the 4x200m freestyle relay. Titmus swam the fastest split ever recorded, 1.52.82, to anchor the quartet but Kiah certainly played her part with an impressive 1.55.40.

Competing at the 2021 Olympic Trials, Kiah swam well under the qualifying time to book herself a spot on the 2021 Australian Olympic Team. The Queenslander clocked a time of 15:57.14 to finish in second place behind training partner Maddy Gough.